Marcel Desjardins is getting a second shot at being a CFL general manager.

A CFL source requesting anonymity said Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group will name Desjardins the new GM of the city’s CFL expansion franchise.

The announcement will be made Wednesday at a news conference.

Desjardins, a native of Burlington, Ont., has spent the last four seasons as the Montreal Alouettes assistant general manager. Desjardins was the GM of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2007 before returning to Montreal.

Overall, Desjardins has spent nine seasons as the assistant to Alouettes general manager Jim Popp.

The hiring of Desjardins in Ottawa is hardly a surprise as he’s been mentioned as a leading candidate for the GM post for roughly the last eight months.

It’s the second significant blow this off-season to the Alouettes football operations department. Earlier this month, head coach Marc Trestman left Montreal to become head coach of the NFL’s Chicago Bears.

Desjardins also spent time working in the CFL’s head office in Toronto from 1994 to ‘99.

The Ottawa franchise is slated to begin play in 2014 and Desjardins will have plenty of work ahead of him.

Ottawa will select four NCAA underclassmen in this year’s CFL draft before participating in December in a three-round expansion draft of players made available from the existing eight clubs. Then in 2014, the club will take part in the league’s Canadian college draft

Ottawa has been without a CFL franchise since 2006 when the Renegades were suspended after four seasons by the league because of financial instability. The Renegades were born seven years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded operations.

The Ottawa football club began play in 1876 and did so until 1996, winning nine Grey Cup titles during its tenure, before folding.

The new Ottawa franchise will operate with a new name, as a condition of the city’s return to the CFL was that the new club not use the Rough Riders team name.

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